Mainstream Renewable Power in €60m financing deal to pursue wind and solar projects

Mainstream Renewable Power has secured up to €60m in financing from the renewable energy investor Macquarie to help fund the construction of wind and solar projects and to expand its global project development portfolio.

Eddie O’Connor set up the company that develops, builds and operates wind and solar thermal plants in 2008, after Airtricity was sold to E.ON and Scottish and Southern Energy for €1.8bn.

Details of the transaction between Mainstream and Macquarie group were announced yesterday. Under the terms of the deal, Mainstream is set to receive an initial €40m corporate-level facility, with the capacity to access an additional €20m of capital at a future date if it meets certain further conditions and approvals.

Mainstream said in a statement that in its current fundraising round it had also raised €16.8m from high net-worth individuals and has the "appetite" to take in more equity to expand its business portfolio, such as with its Energy Bridge scheme that proposes to export 5,000MW of wind power from Ireland to the UK starting from 2017.

This year, Mainstream said it has more than 325MW of wind and solar projects going into construction in Ireland, South Africa, Chile and Canada.

In South Africa, for instance, construction is due to start on a 138MW wind farm and two 50MW solar photovoltaic plants. The company is also planning to start the building of a 33MW wind farm in Chile and a 46MW wind farm in Canada. Mainstream said its first Irish project, a 9MW wind farm, will go into commercial operation in November.

Meanwhile, the company has also submitted a planning application for its 450MW Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind farm in Scotland. As well as this, it is working on two offshore wind farms in England and Germany.

"Mainstream is delighted to be partnering with leading renewable energy investor Macquarie at such an exciting time for our company," said O’Connor, commenting on the financing deal.Offshore wind farm image via Shutterstock